The invention relates to a method according to the introductory portion of claim 1 for in-line printing and processing of successive portions of a band material. The invention further relates to a system according to the introductory portion of claim 7 and to a printer according to the introductory portion of claim 13.
Such a method, such a system and such a printer are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,755. According to this document, the printing is applied by flexoprinting to a strip of packaging material, usually aluminum, which is fed along the transport path to a processing station where the packaging material is sealed to a strip of blisters. The blisters have previously been formed in a sequence of steps along another transport path. The effective length of band material between the position where the flexoprinting roll contacts the packaging material and the processing station where the backing of the blisters is sealed to the blisters containing the products to be packaged is adjustable.
In-line flexoprinting allows the backing to be printed on demand, in accordance with the amount of products being packaged and the printing can be formed as packaging material is fed to the position where it is processed and is thereby automatically aligned in transport direction with the blisters to be sealed to the packaging material.
A disadvantage of flexoprinting is that changing from one image to be printed to another image to be printed is cumbersome in that it requires changing the printer block. Moreover, for each design to be printed, a different printing block is needed which entails substantial costs per design and the need of keeping a stock of all designs one desires to be print.
It is an object of the invention to facilitate changing from one image to another in an in-line printing and processing process in which printings have to be accurately positioned in transport direction in accordance with a processing position upstream or downstream of the printing position. Further objects of the invention are to avoid the need of keeping a stock of printing blocks while alignment in transport direction between positions of printings on the band material and positions on the band material on which processing steps are performed is still assured in a simple, reliable manner.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved by providing a method according to claim 1. Another embodiment of the present invention is formed by a system according to claim 7. The present invention can also be embodied in a printer according to claim 13 which is specifically adapted to be included in a system according to claim 7 in combination with generally available processing facilities.
By providing that the printing is carried out incrementally and in conjunction with incrementally advancing the portion to be printed in accordance with the formation of the incremental portions of the printing, such that the printing is formed, changes in the printing to be made can be made easily by changing data determining the way the printing member is controlled. By further providing that the printed portion is advanced over a remaining portion of the predetermined distance after having been printed, it is assured in a simple manner that the printings are aligned with the positions on the band material onto which the processing is performed. This can be upstream or downstream of the printing position. In both cases, the predetermined total distance of displacement of the band material between the printing station and processing station assures that the printing is aligned in transport direction with the position on the band material onto which the processing step is performed when the transfer of respective portion of the band material between the printing position and the processing position is completed.
These and other objects, features, effects, advantages and details of the present invention are set forth in further detail in the dependent claims and the following description of embodiments of the invention in which reference is made to the drawings of the present application.